Zeon You Will Always Be My Prince
by Slave To Noah
Summary: You promise you wouldn't remarry father. I learned from her servant, Gash. I hate everything about her. I resent her. What about Mother? You promised. At least Gash and Koruru will comfort me. You are not my father. You never were my father. R/R KTHNXBAI
1. Truths

Hey everyone! Uh... my other story? I dun know what you're talking about... Nope. -shifty eyes-

* * *

I am Zeon Bell. I am fifteen years old. I am the Prince of Demons.

My father, the king, has ruled alone for almost ten years. That's because my mother died of an illness when I was merely five years old. The doctors said that it was a progressive illness, one that she didn't just wake up one day and have. It had plagued her her entire life, and she had died singing me to sleep that cold, stormy night ten years ago. Her voice was comforting, and I fell into slumber as my mother's last few moments on this earth slipped down the hourglass. There was nothing I, or anyone else, could have done to save her. The illness had progressed too much, and it does nothing to worry and make oneself sickly and tired over something that was unchangable, as some things in this world so rightfully were.

But there were even more things that could be changed. I couldn't stop myself from aging, maturing, and I certainly couldn't have stopped the sun in the sky. I was aging, that meant that the 'Time of Reckoning' as the assistants in the palace so liked to call it, was upon me. I had to choose a bride. My father was still young with much kick, and as his only son, it was my job to--eventually--assume the throne in his place. To assure that I did not rule alone, I was to choose a woman--any woman--from any town and bring her back to the castle for the ceremony.

None of the princesses interested me. They were fascinated by my war stories, entranced by my silver tresses that touched my shoulders with the slightest of curls. They admired my purple eyes that shone in the slightest of light and my pale skin. They seemed to drool over the toned muscles of almost fourteen years' toil and my keen sense of style. Not onse did they think about my intellect, nor did they care to know anything about my past that did not deal with my triumphs in war. They wished my no condolences for the death of my mother, the memory of such still fresh in my mind. If anyone spoke her name the scab would be picked at and must be pulled, and the bruised skin must be allowed to heal. They did not care for the large library in the castle, filled with the most interesting of tombs--they cared more about the largeness of the bedrooms and how many paintings hang in the main hall. They cared about how many slaves and sevants we owned. They were superficial, they all were, and the thought that I had no choice but to be with one of them for the rest of my life infuriated me. With this it meant that I leave the fate of my people in the hands of someone who would tear down hospitals and orphanages for malls.

In my younger years I would have found something like that exciting. Defeating the weak to achieve something better for myself. But now, after all those years of being wrong, I was set straight by his mother's death. She had said that she had to die to attone for all the horrible things I had done in the mere first five years of my life. Before, some would say, I had even truly lived, I learned that every horrible thing had to be attoned for. I had hurt, pillaged, and killed, and my mother was turned cold like stone and ripped from my tiny hands. Next would be my father, or maybe even me. I attoned myself. No one more would be taken from me. I would not allow it to happen.

Contrary to popular belief, there are many Princes of Demons. As are there Princesses. The world is divided up into kingdoms in which each royal family is the "Ruler of Demons." They have their own customes and their own rules, and one does not impose their own beliefs upon the monarchies of the other kingdoms. That is an unwise thing to do if one wishes to avoid war. So being as polite as I could, I excused myself from the party to sit out on the balcony.

It was a cold night. Thick snowflakes were falling down all around them, falling heavily onto the ground, coating it with the stuff. Reycom, the Prince of Demons for Aisu was taking a red-headed girl for a skate on the ice. While he looked perfectly comfortable in his tee-shirt and short, she was bundled up heavily and was still shivering. He held the red-head close as the skated along the frozen surface of the lake. She seemed to be enjoying herself, even though Reycom was doing tricks that would scare anyone else, it seemed clear that she fully trusted the ice demon. They slowed to a stop and kissed under a tree heavy with snow that twinkled in the moonlight. They separated from the sensual kiss, and a heavy pile of snow fell on the two. They both laughed and made their way back to the party.

I shivered and pulled my coat about me more. I could feel the warmth of their relationship. How close they were to one another and how much they trusted each other, and how faithful they were to each other. To the contrary of what so many relationships were like in many movies and books, a simmering pool of hormones, mistrust and foul relationships, what Reycom and the red-head displayed was something true, something sweet, something... desirable.

"Excuse me Zeon-kun... is this seat taken?"

"No, take it." I responded bluntly, almost rudely. Whomever it was was not put off by my coldness at all and plopped down into the seat. I heard them breathing on their hand and rubbing them together, and soon they became quiet. I took this as an opportunity to look at whomever had taken the seat. It was boy around my age, with short golden locks. His eyes were an intriguing yellow color, and his skin was beautifully tanned. Unlike me, the moonlight didn't suit him too much. He looked like one whom it was best to see in the light of day. Even now however, I could see that he was not wearing royal colors or fabulous fabrics, but was instead donned in the servents' attire for a relatively small kingdom. He had what it took to be a Prince, in my own opinion. "Are you a servant?" I asked.

The boy nodded, and rubbed himself to keep warm. "Did you hear? Your father is looking to marry my mistress."

My head snapped around to the blond so quickly that pain wracked me. I tried to ignore it as I stared down the boy. What nonsense was he speaking? My father would not--could not remarry. "What did you say, cretin?" I asked, my voice growing bitterly sharp and angry. The servant boy quivered from the intensity of my words. It was wrong for me to take out my anger on him. My anger, frustration, and confusion.

"I'm sorry, Zeon-dono, but my mistress... her husband died of gangrene not very long ago, and your father has sent word that he would like her hand in ma--"

"You lie." I said, the two simple words coming out in an unruly jumble. My father would not find another wife. My mother was his wife in life and in death, and he would never cheat on her. My nostrils flared and I felt nothing but rage towards the boy. I stormed back into the warm castle flexing my fingers. He was lying. My father was an honorable man. He honored the love that he and my mother had shared. Her honored the being--me--that had been spawned from their love. And her honored my mother more than anything else. He loved her, he always had and always will, which is why that cretin had to be lying. My father would not remarry, his honor would not allow it! And neither would I.

* * *

I awoke the next morning to the smiling face of Koruru. She had been my personal servant since I was quite young, so I considered her to be part of my family--like a sister. She was almost a full three years older than me, and under my insistence, my father was willing to pay for her wedding. It was no secret that she and Hyde from the kingdom over fancied each other. Hyde cam over a couple times a week just so they could sit outside and talk. Rumors around the castle go that they do much more than talk, and that Hyde has wandering hands and talented lips. I had always thought that Koruru was innocent, but maybe that was the thing. Maybe her innocence is what made you want to kiss her, and touch her.

She jolted me out of my thoughts by saying that my father was awaiting me downstairs for breakfast. Ever since mom died we eat breakfast together. It was a great time of day to talk, when you have no stress of the day on your shoulders and your mind is still waking up, so your lips for the questions wihtout a second thought. According to him, breakfast time was, "the most truthful time of the day." That's why I planned to get answers--real answers--right now.

I splashed cold water on my face. I needed to be aware. I hated to ruin the limber, unworried and unrushed time of the day with my blunt and stark awareness of the questions being asked and the answers that I gave, but this was important. If that servant was correct, then I may have far overestimated my father's nobility. If that cretin was correct... then... I'd have something else to atone for.

Our dining hall was a rectangular room--I'm not exactly sure of the measurments, since how large the room was was never of any consequence to me. Koruru sometimes had to assist me to my seat since I was a little uncoordinated in the mornings, but she seemed quite surprised that I could easily find my way to my chair after wishing my own groggy father good morning in my crispest voice. He said good morning in a messily put-together way (sounded more like, "g'budorni). I slipped into my chair beneath one of the high stained glass windows. Sunlight poured out of it and illuminated the food choices for today. Buttered buscuits and soft fluffy pancakes. Crunchy waffles overflowing with sweet-smelling golden syrup beside a plateful of sliced ham and turkey, smoked of course, juices causing the meat to smell uncharacteristically good. Golden brown bread slices sat placidly on a plate, and fruits--apples, oranges, kiwis, pomogranates, grapes, strawberries, rasberries, and blueberries--overflowing a nearby bowl. The sights and smells assailed me. But I had to be strong and ask the question.

"Father, at the party yesterday, one of Queen Eduron's servants told me something most... curious," I began, helping myself to a warm buscuit.

"Did they?" He sounded as though he truly did not care. My frantic heartbeat began to calm down, and I almost sneered at the thought that I even at one point believed a word of the bull that servant was trying to feed to me.

"They were saying that you had proposed to Queen Eduron. Quite a laugh, no?" I said. My father chewed his food before replying.

"Oh dear... THAT'S not how I wanted you to find out..."

My face became clammy. It was true. My stomach tied itself in a knot and I stood up so abruptly the chair clattered as it fell against the floor. I didn't give him a chance to explain. He couldn't explain any of this to me anymore. Why did I have to find out from a servent? Because my father knew I would react like this. He knew me too well. He knew that I would protest and hate it and hate him and his new wife and everything to do with her. However, I felt a sort of thankfulness towards the servant that had informed me. My father was shouting after me. I tuned him out. He had nothing to say to me--nothing at all. I went into my room and slammed the door shut, locked it, and forced myself to fall asleep. My life had become something I must escape from. Something I had to run from. I would not let this beast catch me.

Never.

* * *

Well... Zeon is acting like quite a big baby, isn't he?

Review? Please?


	2. Wedding

"Zeon-kun? Surely you don't plan to stay in your room throughout the entire wedding ceremony!"

"You know damn well I will, Koruru."

It had been a month or two. The passage of time became of no consequence to me--it could have been one-hundred years and I would not care. My father would still be married and he would ask me kindly, with a voice that implied that I didn't have to, to call her mom. And I would oblige and call her mom, and a little piece of me would die every time I said it until I was thoroughly rotted from the inside out. But my father would not know because then he'd fall apart in ruling the kingdom. I was his son. This shell of a body was his son.

Koruru and Eduron's servant--named Gash, I soon found out--had comforted me throughout the entire month. Koruru tried vainly to get me up and talk things over with my father, and she also left me food and water. Gash talked to me, and had a great sense of humor I realized. He never failed to make me crack a smile every now and again. With their combined help I thought that maybe it was okay. Maybe all of this would go okay. As Koruru so often told me, "happiness lies trapped in misery," so in all this misery I'm sure to find great happiness. Their words, their presence, and their comfort kept me from going insane from rage.

But the day that I had dreaded since I learned of it was upon me, and there was nothing I could to to escape it. Not even Koruru's kind voice nor Gash's tastefull jokes could stir me from my foul mood. Meantime, from my room I could hear the ceremony going on. Koruru and Gash were bounded as servants to attend, and I would have to be alone and suffer as I listen to my father's vows. If I stayed up here, maybe I could stop myself from doing something that I will regret dearly later. If I go down there, I think something horrible will happen. The air of calmness had been imposing on myself for many days now would shatter and I would lose my mind. 'Zeon' would cease to exist, and all there would be would be an enraged beast that used my body to hurt those whom had given birth to it.

"Zeon-kun, you must come downstairs. I know you don't want to and I know it's the last thing you want to do, but you have to! I agree--your father has no place breaking your promise that he would never remarry, but sulking about it won't stop it from happening. Listen! Do you hear what's going on downstairs?" Indeed I did. I heard music and laughter and uncompared merriment. My father was cracking jokes only an hour before the ceremony. I hoped that it wasn't too late. Maybe halfway through the ceremony he'll remember my mother and realize what he's doing is wrong. He promised mom and me he would not do this. He _promised. _I recognized the voice as Gash's."I know you hear it. Well, your father is still going through with it even though you're not there. You being there will make him think you support this and it'll make him feel better about it. It will make him happy."

I clenched the pillow closer to my face. The soft, fluffy thickness make it hard for me to breathe but if I died then maybe it'll be worth it not to live like this. I turned my head to my nightstand where a pictureframe sat. It was an onyx pictureframe and quite shiny. His father--younger at the time, blue eyes sparkling and blond hair tumbling down to mid-back. He had quite the thick beard and kind laugh lines around his face. He stood beside a woman holding a bundle in her arms. You know the bundle was a baby--one pale arm stuck up from the fold, hold onto Daddy's finger. The woman had purple eyes and although she was not an albino, her skin, was equally as pale. Tears came to my eyes and I wiped them away. "What about me? What about my happiness? Did he ever stop to consider that?"

"Not everthing in the world it about you! Your father has only thought about you for how many years? Fifteen! _Fifteen_ Zeon! Are you too spoiled to realize that everything he's done in all those years was for you? Ever bit of money spent, every descision made was made with you in mind and what would make you happy! Goddammit Zeon, it's your Dad's turn to be happy now. He may be a king and he may be your father but he's as much a demon as you are and he needs some happiness too!"

I tried to think of some snide remark. I grasped my mind for some flaw in what Gash was telling me. But just like before, like that time, he was right, and what he was saying was true. Nothing my father had ever done since I was born was done merely to enhance himself. It might have done that as a side effect, but the main reason it was done was to make me happy, and make my quality of life even better. I frowned at this whole situation.

"Fine. Give me a half-hour to get ready."

I heard the two rejoice at their success on the other side of the door.

* * *

It had taken me thirty minutes to get fully ready, as I had not been trying that hard to look presentable. I had hunted down the suit my father had begged me to wear and went downstairs to meet him. He smiled at me and brought me into his arms in a bearhug the like that I had not seen in years. He began blubbering and tears sprang forth from those kind blue eyes and he said over and over, as though it was some sort of mantra: "Thank you son. Thank you. Thank you so much son. Thank you." He had never seen his father cry, not even when his mother died did those blue orbs shed tears. But now, something like this, gave birth to the first tears ever shed by this great man. He wondered why.

As the best man, he had to stand at the front with his father and control the bile trying to rise up from his throat. Not only because this was happening--something that for the longest time he had slipped into a world where something like this couldn't happen--but honestly moreso because the woman that his father was going to take and mark as his own looked ugly. She wore make-up that would have looked astonishingly beautiful on anyone else, but on her it made her face look heavy and old, like something one could buy for pennies on the dollar at any nearby whorehouse.

I searched among the faces of the servants and finally found Gash and Koruru. They both merely looked at me and gave me dual thumbs up. I was doing great. But /i could not say the same for myself. Sure I had not allowed the bile to take over me yet, but I had to give a speech to the new couple. To my new mother, and to my new family. I could not do that--absolutely not. But I thought of my father, and how he had weeped so opened that I had chosen to attend this wedding. I spent much of the time musing over what I would say. I decided that my own spin would be better that thinking about it too much.

At the reception--which took place in the gardens, surrounded by the blooming roses and tulips with a smattering of monkshood and casablanca lilies floatign artistically on the clear lake full of koi fish. Stargazer lillies mixed with babies breath and sunflower petals rested on every table, and Queen Eduron's daughter went first. She spoke about how her father had been killed in and accident and how hard it was for her and her mother to cope. She paused every now and again for a dramatic sniffle. Her tear jerking speech ended with how glad she was that her mother had found someone, and how overjoyed she was that she finally would have an older brother. She handed to microphone over to me and I took a deep breath.

"My father was always thinking about others' happiness before his own. I, originally, did not want him to remarry after my mother's death because I felt that it was a betrayal to my mother's memory. To me I thought that there was nothing that I didn't want to happen more. And right now, even after the vows have been said and they are 'officially'--" I lifted my hands and put air quotations around the word "officially"--"married, there is still nothing that I wish hadn't happened more. So, why am I standing her talking about this if I didn't want this to happen? Why did I even bother attending? Because I learned that my father was always doing things for my happiness, and I had almost never done anything for him. Because I thought it was his obligation. It is his obligation to take care of me. It is a matter of choice, however, to make me happy. So although I do not like my stepmom, nor do I like my stepsister, I will bear with it because for once, if only once, I want my father to be happy. Thank you."

I sat down to applause and saw that Gash and Koruru were clapping for me loudest of all. I smiled at them and mouthed a thank you. Once again, they both gave dual thumbs-up. My father was hitting me on the back with tears in his eyes once again. He wasn't saying anything, but it seemed obvious that he was happy and very proud that I had chosen someone over myself for once. It felt good. I knew at that moment that it would not be the last time.

I wasted no time going to sit with the others. Gash's servant clothes were switched for something slightly more better-looking than normal. Koruru sported a beautiful pink dress with one strap over the shoulder held up by a flowershaped button. They looked--and this opinion suprised him, one whom was always so particular about what looked good and what didn't--good. Even with such a difference in clothing quality both of them looked amazing.

"That was a good thing you did Zeon-kun," Gash said, a wide smile on his features. I had been correct about him--sulight suited him far better than moonlight did.

"Please," I said, raising my hand to the both of them. "We're... friends, are we not? Just call me Zeon."

"Right, Zeon."

"Zeon, may I have this dance?"

Koruru was standing beside me, and I stood as well to join her on the dance floor. Gash stood and watched us as we danced and spun and laughed. At the end of the song Gash danced with her, and the third song, just for laughs, me and Gash danced. Being taller, that made Gash the female in the dance. When the fourth song started the three of us danced as one. And then the fifth we all freestyled, drawing attention to ourselves.

I had to admit--for something I dreaded happening, I had a lot of fun afterwards.

* * *

Yay! Zeon's happy!

NAO HE MUST FACE TEH JUDGMENT

Review? Please? I luv you?

Yes, I know I switched to third person for a little while there. force of habit. ^_^U


	3. Bench

"Checkmate!"

"Ah, you are a worthy adversary, Zeon..."

Gash and I sat on the floor in my room with my favorite wooden chessboard. He insisted that we play to take my mind off things, and I'm very glad he did. It was hard to think about my new family when you can whip someone in a good-old-fashioned game of chess? He was very persistant, I'll give him that. As we began to set up for the next game, Koruru opened the door and flung herself on my bed where she began to weep openly.

We looked at each other, Gash and I, and decided that we should try and figure out what happened. We climbed on the bed at opposite sides and asked what was wrong. In her normally sweet voice, marred by hiccups and sobs, she said that my father's new wife had decided that it was a waste of money to pay for her and Hyde's wedding. Hyde's master would not pay for it either, because the responsiblity of funding the ceremony always fell squarely on the family of the bride. She wouldn't stop crying into the pillow. Gash and I shared a moment of mutual understanding and as he tried to comfort her I left my room and skulked downstairs. My stepmother and my father sat on their thrones.

"Dad!" I shouted, taking long, quick strides. He glanced at me, at the anger written on my face and politely excused the scribe whom had probably been reading off a list of needed items for a tiny village in the southern part of our kingdom. Before he had a chance to ask me what was wrong, I launched into the story. "Did you know Queen Eduron told Koruru that she couldn't get married to Hyde? She's upstairs, crying as we speak."

Her face became stiff as she turned to look at me slowly. "Don't speak such foolish lies, child. I would never--"

"My son does not lie, Eduron." My father said in a deep, commanding voice. His form stood from the throne and walked down to meet me. I looked up and him as he placed one of his large hands on my shoulder. For some reason it calmed me. And as I looked up into his reassuring eyes my temper became much more placid. "Zeon. Go fetch Koruru. Tell her that I would like to speak to her."

"She didn't tell me to come to you father!" I said hurriedly. I didn't want to get Koruru in more trouble by having my father think she was using me to get her way. He rose his large hand to silence me and I became quiet.

"Do not fret Zeon. I only wish to inform her that her wedding will be paid for as I promised. I broke one promise, and I do not intend to break another," those blue eyes twinkled at those words and I longed to believe in what my father was saying to me. I threw my arms around him and a hug and thanked him before darting up the steps to bring Koruru to my father. I bounced on the bed and leaned down at Koruru's eye level against the pillow. Her eyes were puffy and pink. I moved one of her locks from out of her face, and informed her of what my father had told me. He face brightened instantly and she brought me into a hug before going downstairs to acknowledge my father's summonings.

Gash grinned at me and patted me on the back as we returned to our chess game, which I won in a matter of moves. Gash took the loss in good nature and we continued to play deep into the night until we were summoned for dinner.

* * *

My new stepmom obviously didn't like that I treated my servants like my friends instead of like lowly cretins. My father had usually allowed the sevants to sit with us as we ate dinner so long as there was no company. Seh vehemently protested againtst this, saying that it may lead them to think that they can do whatever they want because they dined with us. I suppose it was only fair that after taking my side that morning that he should take her side that night. I insisted that I should be allowed to eat with the sevants then. She forbade that, saying that a Prince should not dine with the help. I think she was truly afraid of the look I gave her, and I returned to my room, seething with anger just like I had done the days before their marriage.

Koruru and Gash entered my room to watch the moon. It was something that we just did on spur sometimes, because the moon had a pale, pretty face and the gentlest glow. "You know Zeon," Gash said with a smile. His skin looked oddly dark in the gentle moonlit night. "When to moon shines down on you, it looks almost like you're shining back."

Since then I looked at the moon whenever I could. It comforted me. I would even talk to it sometimes and I always felt like it would respond back to me. My only two friend did not find this strange. Instead they thought that it was something I needed. All people needed an inanimate object to talk to about things no human being would ever understand. While most demon children had teddy bears and stuffed animals, I something far more grand. Something that I could never lose. I had the moon.

Koruru and I were walking through the garden under the moonlight. Gash's mistress was angry at him for getting so friendly with me. I could not get my father to stop her there--her sevants were hers, just like his were his. He could have no control on how she governed her help, even if they were married. The pond looked so beautiful with the petals floating in it and the shimmering koi making them bounce around on the surface. I've seen them in the morning with dewdrops collected on their petals. It was truly a sight worth getting up early or staying up late for.

"Zeon... do you like Hyde?" Koruru asked out of the blue. Did I like him? I barely knew him! All I knew was that she liked him and that he seemed to make her really happy. As far as I was concerned, Hyde wasn't cheating on her with anyone, so I guess he was alright in my book. I told her this and she smiled. "I like him. I'm glad I work for such a kind family. I don't think anyone else in the whole demon world would pay for their servants' marriage."

I nodded and stared up at the moon, and Koruru started to hum. She grabbed the sleeve of my black silk pajamas and pointed to a bench swing. I recognized it as my mother's favorite place to go. To sit under the trees with the diluted light falling on the pages of an open book in her lap. It had once shone and been made of pale wood, but now its been worn down. The wood is broken and it looks ratty. Vines have taken over the seat, but I sat on it anyway. It used to rock without a single sound. Now it creaked back and forth, back and forth...

I imagined his mother on this swing in its hay day. I remembered that she would always swing on it with me whenever I found her here, and she would sing and lightly rock me to sleep here. More than I realized or remembered, maybe this bench contained more of my mother's soul than even I did. Koruru sat beside me and wrapped her arms around me to break me from my stupor. My face was wet. Had I been crying? Yes, I had been crying. She patted my back to sooth me, and I buried my head into the crook of her neck and took in her scent. She smelled of honey and fresh bread, of rasberries and milk. "I miss her." I managed to croak out. She shushed me gently, and began to rock the swing back and forth with her legs.

"It's okay. I know you miss her."

* * *

Neither of us mentioned what had happened at the bench to Gash. He didn't need that on his mind. His mistress had been keeping him so busy with running around doing trivial tasks that he didn't have time to hang out with us anymore. When his work was finally done, we was too tired to do anything, and always went straight to sleep in the sevant's quaters. We saw hide nor hair of him for almost a month. His mistress finally gave him a break and he joined us at the bench after Koruru left directions for him on his pillow.

Like Koruru and I did, Gash thought that the rotting wood and vines and creaking gave the bench more character. We spent hours there, just talking, or being silent and enjoying and relishing the fact that we were not alone, and that the three people beside us understood. We sat together in silence and allowed our ties to strengthen, like a tree growing older, reaching to the sky with trunk so thick and branches so large.

But at night I sat here alone and sometimes thought about my mother, sometimes staring up into the sky, and sometimes just to let one or two tears fall. One night, Gash came out and found me laying protrate on the bench, kicking off with one foot. I sat up and made room for him. I thought he wanted some thing but he was silent. It was one of those strengthening times, I thought.

"You should come back inside," he said at last. "There's a storm coming." I nodded and walked with him back to the dark castle. He left me and bade me good night before heading the sleeping quarters for the servants.

I went up the stairs past my father's sleeping quarters, and I heard Queen Eduron's voice as she spoke to him. I suddenly felt a wave of sickness that my father was sharing a room and bed with that horrible woman. I pressed my ear to the door to hear what they were saying better. Even though eavesdropping wasn't a polite thing to do, I wanted to know what they were saying.

"--that boy of yours is simply mental! He practically spends all his time with the servants! He wants to eat with them, play with them, next thing you know he'll want to sleep with them too!"

"Fuck... you..." I breathed slightly.

Eduron continued. "Did you know he has never once even spoken to Cherish? Not even once!"

"Zeon is fine. He and Koruru have practically been friends since birth."

She scoffed and continued as though she hadn't heard. "And the smart mouth on that one! Gash has been shirking his duties to play with him!"

"That is a bad thing?"

"Of course! A sevant is supposed to serve, not play chess with his master!"

"They are both happy, so I see no problem in what Gash is doing."

"He talks to the sky you know. That boy is bloody mental. Ever since that bitch Azurla died he's been--"

Silence.

"I think," Eduron continued, "that a little separation from his servant friends will help him. Don't you?"

"I suppose so..."

I stood up and went to my room as fast as I could, shutting the door. I squeezed my eyes shut and willed this all to go away.

* * *

Uh.... Yeah.... Nothing to say about this one except...

DUN DUN DUNNNN! The plot thickens!... I think...

Review? Please? I haz cookies?


	4. Blood

When I woke up, I didn't expect to see Koruru or Gash in my face, smiling their believing, caring smiles at me. I could deal without seeing Gash--I hadn't known him long enough for his company to be an absolute necessity, but I had seen Koruru's smiling face and pretty pink curls every day since I could see. My earliest memory is of me looking up at Kururu, who could be no older than three or four at the time. I thought that I could truly go through withdrawal without her.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes and stretching. No "Good Morning Zeon." No "Don't rub your eyes like that, Zeon!" No, "Hey, wanna play chess Zeon?" Nothing. My room was silent. I could never get used to a silent room in the morning. I tossed my covers of and my feet made contact with the freezing floor, which sent a barrage of shivers up my spine. Where were my slippers? Koruru always made sure my slippers were there. The memory that Koruru wasn't there to move my slippers hit me like the realization that I would have to look for them. Where were my slippers? After looking for about five minutes and gave up and started downstairs, my feet slapping against the stone floors. I wondered how the servants could stand walking around here barefoot.

"Good morning Zeon! Hey, why are you barefoot?"

"Because Koruru wasn't there to move my slippers and I couldn't find them." I murmured as an answer to my Stepsister's question. My father and Queen Eduron shared a glance as the contemplated something. Probably how to explain to me why may faithful servant and friend since birth was missing from the castle. But the said nothing as they continued eating the food in front of them. I realized quickly that if I was to get answers, then I had to ask the questions myself. "Father..." I began in the casual tone that I only use under extreme stress and anger. I saw his large fearsome form freeze up suddenly. Only I could make my father do that. Was it wrong that I hate a sort of pride about it?

"Where's Gash and Koruru? I haven't seen them since last night."

He continued to be silent as he chewed. His mouth went up and down slowly, trying to elongate the time he had to think about his response. I waited patiently, my shining purple eyes oh-so like my mother's upon him, making it clear that I was not going to drop this until he answered.

When the food between his lips was nothing more than mush, he swallowed the probably tasteless food, cleared his throat. He remained silent for several more minutes before deciding upon a suitable answer. "Son... Zeon..." He was trying to calm me and it wasn't working. "I know and understand Koruru and Gash are your friends, but... oh how can I put this..."

"Let me dear--"

"No." I said sharply. My stepmother turned to me slowly and opened her aged mouth as though to say 'excuse me young man?' but I shifted my gaze instantly onto her, and the heavily painted rose-red lips closed silently. "The last thing I want or need is to hear something from you. My father has a mouth and a mind, not just a cock you whore."

Her mouth opened in shock and my gaze remained fixed. I glanced to my father and his eyes told me all I needed to know. I was disgusted with this so-called 'family'. I stood up and made to walk away. "It was better when it was just me, my father, and my mom's spirit." I walked out of the room, out of the castle and into the garden. The ground was sun-warmed and slightly damp with dew. It was a beautiful spring day and I couldn't even enjoy it because of that woman and her prejudice. I found my way through the green thicket to the bench and began to rock back and forth. The creaking coaxed a tear or two out of my eyes, because I realized something. Where I was, I had found my mother again.

I was someplace where I could hear her voice (the creaking), feel her touch (the wood), smell her smell, (the flowers), and see her face (the moon). At night my mother sat at this bench and allowed me to lay on her lap. She'd sooth me by rocking me back and forth and if I concentrated, the creaking became her words as she said everything was alright. As long as I lay here, I didn't have to face my father, my judgmental stepfamily or anyone else.

So I lay there for the entire day. I didn't move to go to the house for lunch or dinner. I went to the bushes, far from my mother's sacred place for the bathroom and drank deeply from the clear lake. Every time I would return to that spot without fail because I love it there. I admitted that as I listened to the creaking and ran my fingers over the wood, I felt the least alone. I sometimes felt a little alone with Koruru and Gash, but right now, I felt as though there was truly something else here. Something better here.

I contemplated going into the house for my sleeping bag when the idea was promptly washed away by a sudden downpour of rain.

* * *

I rushed into the castle soaking wet from the rain and my still-bare feet slapping on the ground as water pooled around me. My father was surprised to learn that I was still outside, as he had apparently been under the impression that Queen Eduron saw me come back in and run to my room in a hurry. When he prompted her about it she merely shrugged. She said it must've been her imagination. Her imagination my ass.

She thinks I don't know what's going on but she'd be surprised that I'm more than just a pretty face and foul mouth. Because right then, everything began to fit into place. She got sick of her tiny kingdom, so she decided to mosey in on my families much larger one. She married my father after my mother's death, whittling away his resolve to keep the promise he made to me. She was trying to make my life miserable, and I just figured out exactly why. This woman wants me dead. She wants me gone so that the only one left to succeed the throne would be Cherish, because my father was an only child just like I was. If I was gone then the kingdom as well as hers would go straight to her. She'd a sulfur witch but I'll be dammed if she isn't smart.

She made my father think that I was inside so he wouldn't send someone looking, in hopes that I died or was killed out in the garden. It was a logical thing to think, since one never knew when the castle garden ended and where the forests began. Well, that's not true considering you would know when a wolf came out of no where and made a meal out of you. She thought I was depressed about my mother, and perhaps she thought that I would take care of my own life eventually. Boy was she wrong. I may be a lot of things, but Zeon Bell is not a quitter.

Well fine. She wants to play, I'll play. As I lay in my bed, changed out of my soaked pajamas and straight into a new, dry set, and thought about what to do. What could I do anyway? Who was he going to believe--his, "lawfully wedded wife" or his both lawful and biological son? I sighed and got out of my bed, as I had still never gotten the answer to this morning's question.

He sat on his throne as always, but he seemed to be bored. There were no things which needed attending to, so he merely sat, staring at the door, waiting from some crisis to come crashing in. He wanted a crisis, here comes crisis.

"Father. You never answered my--"

"Your foul words disgrace me, Zeon."

My father had cut me off. He never did that. He continued when he saw that I was making no interruption attempts myself.

"Did Gash and Koruru teach you those words?"

"Wha--a?! Father, no! Gash and Koruru never even used those words!"

"Well neither did you until you started spending all that time with them!"

He was raising his voice as well. Who was this man and what had he done with my kind but strong king of a father? The one that always spoke in quiet tones?

"F-father..." I stuttered. I never stuttered. "I've known those words for a while, other Princes and Princesses say them I just never used them its just that she made me so mad she makes me so mad father!" I said as fast as I could get them out of my mouth. I was stuttering. My words were falling from my lips jumbled and messy. What was wrong with me? What was happening?

"What happened to the Zeon that wanted only to make his father happy, hm?" All the while I couldn't see the expression on his face. I was afraid for perhaps the only time in my life, that my father would strike me. My mother had struck me several times in her lifetime, whenever I did something bad or made her cry she would strike me, but only once, and never more than once. He eased up out of his throne and turned to me, and I took many steps back.

His face was hard and he looked enraged. He walked towards me and I backed away. This was the only time I was frightened of my father. No, I was beyond frightened. I was positively terrified. I turned heels and ran for the steps, tried to get away. This was just a dream, I tried to convince myself. None of this is happening.

I still tried to convince myself of that as I lay on my bed, splotches of blood on my clothes and every beatable part of my body covered in scratches and bleeding or just plain hurting, and every time I tried to shift pain would shoot up my body and a new wave of pain and tears would try to force their way out of me. But I bit them back, afraid that if my father heard my cries of pain or my sobs he would thunder into the room and attack me again. What's worse is that I smelled the fermented grape and alcohol on his breath. My father was drunk. Perhaps he would have no recollection of what had happened. Perhaps Queen Eduron--whom sat in the throne beside him and lifted not a finger to help me even as I yelled from someone to make him stop--would say that I had injured myself outside and offer him another glass. And then the process would start again tomorrow.

She was truly out to get me. She was tearing us apart from the inside, picking at my fathers love of fine, rich wine, infecting it, and turning it into some horribly mutated beast hungry and lustful for the blood of one pale skinned demon.

I wished Gash and Koruru were here. If no one else in castle had helped me, at the expense of their jobs they would have. They would have tried to pull him off me, and Koruru would tend to my wounds as Gash made me laugh to take my mind off the pain. A few tears feel from my eyes, but not from the pain of the beating--from an entirely different, inner pain.

* * *

Let the child abuse lawsuits begin.

Review? OR ZEON'S DRUNKEN FATHER WILL COME AT YOU IN THE NIGHT!

I feel really sad I made that happen to him... but the fic must go on!


	5. Cheat

I awoke and for a fleeting moment the foolish belief that the events of the night prior had just been a horrible nightmare filled my head before insane amounts dull, hacking pains shook me from head to toe. I tried to move and felt scabs crack and tear and dug my teeth into my bottom lip to prevent myself from screaming. I could not let her defeat me. I had to do something. I searched around me and for a fleeting moment I thought Koruru might be back. Gash might be back, concerned as to why there were scabs all over my body. But I realized that they weren't there, and that I had to deal with this pain alone.

My body. Every time I moved waves of pain would assail me and I felt like I should just sit there and wait for the wound to heal and pick off the scabs that kept cracking. My pajamas were crusty with blood and as I came downstairs, my hungover and increasingly sober father looked at me, limping down the stairs. He seemed horrified with what he saw. Queen Eduron turned as well and pretended to be shocked with what she saw, but she knew damn well that she wasn't fooling me. She may be able to fool my hungover father with her fake caring but not me.

I made my way to my chair and hissed gently. The coldness felt great against my body, and for a moment the pain vanished, only to return once my body heat transferred to the wooden chair beneath me. "Z-Zeon... What happened to you?" My father asked. I wiped my mouth and saw crusted saliva mixed with crusted blood. I thought it felt like there were two scars under my eyes--under each eye even--and my father seemed worried. I glanced at my stepmom and managed to think of something.

"You were drunk last night," I began. Her wrinkly features fell. She looked more like my Grandmother than my Stepmother. "You got angry at me for cursing and you..." I swallowed a lump in my throat and gestured to my crusted clothes and scabbed body. My father looked horrified, but he was sober enough to know that what I was saying was completely true. And I realized that all the servants, minus Koruru and Gash were still in the castle, because he ordered them to get rid of all wines and alcohol in the castle. None of it could enter the walls as long as he was king. Eduron looked at me with eyes of anger. I didn't care. She wanted to play hardball, then I'll play back.

They treated my scars and scabs and I was cleaned up rather quickly. My father apologized over and over and I had to say that after the third apology I forgave him. Why? Because he said that he would bring Gash and Koruru back. I still never found out where they went, but what did it matter when they were back?

I was laying in bed, setting up the chessboard, when a tan hand moved one of the pawns forward two spaces. I looked up and saw Gash's blond hair and golden eyes. Koruru had a duffel bag over her shoulder and was setting it down when she noticed what was going on between Gash and I. She let out a sigh, but it was obvious that she was just glad to be back. "Boys and chess. What is it with you two?" And she laughed, watching us play. I decided to let Gash win for once, I was just too happy that they were back to want to win.

* * *

I told them about finding my mother in the bench. Gash said that he was happy for me, and also divulged to us that he had neither a mother nor a father. He had no family at all. This shocked Koruru and I, as Koruru had siblings working in other countries and I of course had my dad. He merely shrugged, saying that you couldn't miss something you never knew you had. We felt sorry for Gash, even though that's the last emotion he wanted us to feel. I sat on the bench and told Gash to sit beside me.

"You know Gash, if you need a family, you've got me and Koruru. And, I'm willing to share my mother's spirit with you too." Gash grinned and laughed, but seemed to be truly touched. He didn't ruin the moment with words, and Koruru joined us as we rocked back and forth, waiting for nightfall.

When darkness finally fell upon the castle, we moved into the open to stare at the stars. They looked so tiny and insignificant beside the large, bright moon, that I almost felt sorry for them. We oohed, and ahed, and gasped as we were rewarded with a shooting star. Since Gash seemed to be the one who needed the wish, he closed his eyes and wished for all he was worth. I was burning to ask him what he'd wished for, but decided not to. It was his personal business after all, wasn't it? Soon, more and more stars fell from the sky. I was a meteor shower I realized, and we all closed our eyes and wished.

I had a sneaking suspicion that Gash made the same wish every single time. I finally plucked up the courage to ask what he had wished for. The blond demon chuckled and said, "I wished to be better at you in chess." I scoffed and told him what a wasteful wish that was. He wasn't offended, and I knew he wouldn't be, as he punched me on the arm and we returned to staring at the night sky that hung so beautifully and rishly above our heads.

* * *

"Why are you being so bitchy?"

"Oh I'm a bitch now?"

Gash released a loud sigh and I couldn't blame him. The upstairs was a hallway with a railing which looked down into the throne room. It was breakfast time, so my father did not inhabit his chair, but it was probably for the better, seeing as the kitchen was too far away to catch the echoes of the foul words. Hyde had come over again, but instead of going out into the garden to "talk" they had begun having an argument in the main hall.

"Do you know why they are fighting?" I asked Gash. He turned to me and shook his head, confessing that he thought that I knew. "Maybe they hit a rough patch in their relationship?" I tried.

Gash seemed to scoff and chuckle at my naivete. "You don't know anything. Rumor has it that Hyde was two-timing with some other demon."

That struck me as odd, considering he had said that he didn't know a moment prior. It also struck me as odd that Hyde could find a reason to cheat on Koruru with some other demon girl. I scratched my head. "Well, what's the other demon's name?"

The tanned blond shrugged lamely. "I dunno. I think they said it was Tio or something like that."

I let that sink in. Hyde, the boy that Koruru seemed to really like, the boy she wanted to marry, was cheating on her with some demon named Tio. Gash added that Tio lived and worked in the same castle as Hyde, so their relationship was much easier than him and Koruru since he wasn't forced to travel long distances. I clenched my fists over the railing. What was wrong with this guy? He has the perfect girl and instead of loving her and holding her and taking care of her like a good boyfriend should, he cheated on her. "Hyde's an idiot."

"Isn't he?"

And we fell into silence as we watched them bicker and argue and yell about things that had nothing to do with the current situation. This was crazy. I was beginning to think that she wasn't just trying to ruin my life. She wanted to ruin theirs too. It was an unfair thought--how could I blame all of this on my stepmom? My friends' problems and my problems only started when she moseyed on into the castle. Hyde never even noticed the Tio girl until recently. They even say that she wasn't working at the castle until recently. The timing of all this is too strange. Far too strange to be coincidence.

Koruru kicked him out of the castle and stormed up to my room to cry on my bed. Meanwhile I had to be getting to breakfast, so I left Gash to comfort her while I was forced to dine with my father and faux-family. I ate as respectfully as I could at the silent table. I thanked my father for bringing back Gash and Koruru and hurried up to my room to comfort her.

Gash sat beside the bed and I realized that she was not weeping, but was seething with anger. I had never even heard of Koruru ever being angry. I was terrified and judging by the tanned boy's face he too was terrified, and we bother were inside my room, terrified of Koruru. I slowly made my way to the bed and kneeled down in front of it.

"What did Hyde do?"

The pink haired girl gave a sort of croak and turned her back to me. Gash tried and she flipped onto her stomach, her face in the pillow. I knew that she couldn't breathe very easily, so I was worried, But I knew that she wouldn't suffocate herself, would she? Gash and I shared the same look and thought, and we didn't dare move for about an hour, afraid that if we did she would cease to be breathing.

That night Koruru and Gash went back to their quarters and Gash left, promising that he'd keep an eye on her through the night. I was suddenly whittled with worry, and I lay on my stomach, conveying to the large moon what had happened that day. I felt stressful and upset for Koruru, and I knew that Gash probably felt the same. I couldn't easily slip into sleep. I trusted Gash with Koruru, truly I did, but what if he stopped paying attention for even a moment? It only takes an instant for your life to end.

I had to shove that thought to the back of my mind. Koruru was stronger than that. She wouldn't end her life because of a boy. No, she wouldn't, because if she did, she'd leave Gash and I behind, and she knew how much we needed her. We needed someone to criticize our day-long chess tournaments, someone to keep us in line and someone to tell us what to do. She was eighteen and had a lot of time ahead of her--she would not do this. I knew she wouldn't do this. I refused to let myself even think of what would happen if she did this, and forced myself into slumber.

_I was somewhere in the castle, in some sort of dormitory. Many bunk beds were side to side down its entire length and sleeping forms under uncomfortable looking covers. They seemed thin and scratchy, like burlap almost. I recognized this place as the place where the servants slept. With the addition of all of Eduron's servants we probably had over 100 people in help. I was searching for one bed in particular._

_I saw a tuft of pink locks on the pillow and I climbed onto the bed. It was made for only one person to sleep on, that was obvious, and as I pulled down the covers I saw a skull with Koruru's hair connected. Bones, dressed in her servant attire lay on her bed. Was this truly Koruru? Yes it was. She had wasted away. Sobs came to my ears, so I looked down to see Gash there, head in his hands, crying. "I tried to save her, Zeon... I tried... I tried..."_

I sat bolt upright covered in cold sweat. It was still nighttime. I sighed and found my slippers. I needed to check this once and for all.

* * *

And everything is back to normal! Sort of!

REVIEW! OR HYDE WILL CHEAT ON YOU!


	6. Feeling

I shunted out of my room with the light falling gently around me. I remember only being at the servant's sleeping quarters once when I was younger. Since then, I've forgotten where it is, but after dinner most of the servants, save Gash and Koruru of course, go into the kitchen. So it must be in the kitchen, or connect to the kitchen somehow. I must also confess that have almost never ventured into the kitchen. As I realize this, I also realize that I'm far more spoiled than I originally thought. Snorting, I pushed the thought behind everything else, and allowed Koruru to float to the front of my mind.

The castle looked odd at night. Odd, but not exactly unpleasant. Through the halls to the dining room, and to the door that separates the Dining Room with the Kitchen. I pushed against it and found it locked. What the hell? I didn't even know this door was lockable! After a solid five minutes of pushing, I have to do the one thing I promised my father I wouldn't do. I had to use Zakeru.

We demons have special powers, and they all vary. My father doesn't use his around me, but I assume he was a lightning demon just like me. My weakest spell is Zakeru, but with years of rigorous training its become stronger than many other spells. I had to promise not to use my powers wastefully, since if I lost control many demons would die. But hey, this wasn't really frugal, since I might lose a friend if I didn't do this. I went through the worst experience of my life to get them back, and I would not allow one of them to leave me cold.

**_"Za-ke-ru..."_ **I murmured, feeling a powerful jolt of electricity try and jump out of my fingertips. Biting down on my lip I managed the hold back most of the attack and only enough the destroy the lock. Afterwards my arm feels numb and tingly. I shake it vigorously and another jolt falls free. It jumped into the ground and vanished, leaving a dark scorch mark. "Dad's gonna kill me for that..." I murmured and pushed the door open, walking into the dark kitchen.

I never imagined our kitchen at night. The servants don't bother keeping the floors clean, I notice. I think there's a thin layer of sand on the floor, although what purpose that serves I haven't the slightest clue. I'm surprised at how clean it looked, because I always thought that they used bloody knives to slice garlic cloves and spat in the stew and chopped off fingers to jokingly put in the turkey.

Looking around, I see a medium sized door. I could get in if I just stooped a little bit. My father, much larger than myself, could probably not fit in this doorway unless on all fours. My eyes had to adjust to the slight darkness of the room, but I noted that there were several windows. Since this room was technically underground, people on low bunks probably got very little air. The room smelled like sweat and grass, and at that moment a wave of terror strikes me. This room is exactly like I dreamed it. Burlap blankets and the location of Koruru's bunk. Massive déjà vu.

I pull myself up onto her bed which is indeed made for one person only. Although I never considered her to be large or anything remotely like that, I realize that the only way I could be on the bed and not fall off would be to have either one of my legs positioned to the edges of the bed. The long and short of it: I'd have to _straddle_ her.

With a gulp of air I did this. She didn't awaken, thankfully, seeing as this is a pretty awkward position, no? My hand trailed upwards and pulled down the burlap blanket covering her face, and my breath hitched only to be released in a thankful sigh. No skeleton. No weeping Gash. On impulse I needed to check something else. I slid down her bed a bit and rested my head on her chest, listening for a heartbeat and breathing. She was doing both, thankfully, but I also noticed that Koruru's chest was quite soft and comfortable. I gulped as heat rushed to my face once I realized what I was doing.

It took me a couple seconds for me to cover her back up and jump off her bunk. My heart went crazy when I heard her shift and sit up, rubbing her eyes sleepily. She glanced down at me and yawned. "Zeon? What are you doing here?"

"I had a nightmare is all. I'm, uh, I'm going back to my room now." I said and took jerking, hurried steps out of there, as a smile twitched on my features at her quiet call of good night. Back upstairs, back to my room to return to sleep after I kicked off my slippers. I was sleepy, and fell asleep almost as soon as my head made contact with the pillow.

* * *

The day began as plainly as any day before it. Koruru and Gash awoke me from my slumber, I went downstairs to dine with my father and stepfamily (just as I had predicted I had received a fair chewing out because I used my lightning powers even though I wasn't supposed to) and I whooped Gash in a game of chess. By noon, things were normal, but once the clock finished chiming, things got... out of hand.

Hyde came around again. For a fleeting moment I thought he had come to apologize. But instead he had brought a girl with him. She had pinkish hair only a couple shades closer to red than Koruru's. they had similar eyes, but this girl looked less kind and more violent. Her hair was long and straight, and Hyde introduced her as Tio. When she asked him why he had come, he merely said that his boss wasn't going to pay for the wedding between him and Tio.

My eyes widened at the nerve of him. He had come to our kingdom to ask his former girlfriend--who was perfectly faithful and loved him unconditionally--to pay for his wedding to another girl. I watched Koruru get angry again, Her soft, curly hair became spiky and her fingers grew long and sharp and became made of metal. Her eyes changed and she was suddenly not the kind hearted, peaceful Koruru, but was an angry, evil Koruru. She screamed at him to get out, slicing at him with her nails. As he and his new girlfriend ran out of the castle and off the grounds, Koruru changed back and began to cry again.

We took her inside and she went into the kitchen, into the freezer for an ice-cream sandwich. Comfort food. We didn't see Koruru until nightfall at the bench. She was listening to the rhythmic lullaby of the creaking, and she had her hands folding in her lap. We also noticed that she had scratches on he feet. The fact that she was barefoot was nothing new since none of the servants had shoes, but since there was nothing for them to scratch their feet on, that was something worrisome.

We attempted to join her on the swinging bench when she ordered us to leave her alone and go back into the castle. Gash and I exchanged a look, but didn't move. We saw her starting to change and high-tailed it out of there. We didn't play chess that night, but merely stared up at the sky and talked about anything we could think about. Therefore we talked about Koruru.

"Can you believe the nerve of Hyde? What a bastard."

"Total bastard. Did you see Tio though? I'd like to tap that."

"Gash that's disgusting..."

"I'm totally serious! I mean, if Hyde hadn't dumped Koruru for her I'd... Mm-mm, if you know what I mean."

"Dude, stop, that's gross."

"Please, bet you think about doing that to Koruru."

"Ew, no! Koruru's my friend! She's more of a babysitter than a love interest."

Gash laughed at that. "Yeah right. You'd like her to sit on sumthin' else--"

I hit Gash over top the head with the wooden chess board. He laughed, rubbing where he was hit without any sort of hostility.

"Okay, maybe not. But she's a good catch. I can't imagine why he'd dump her."

"Because she's too modest. He wanted something that'd have trouble keeping their legs together."

Gash merely nodde

* * *

d and allowed the room to fall into silence. We stared up at the waning moon, knowing that the Half-Moon would be upon us soon, then the crescent moon and then there would be no moon at all. I was slightly saddened by that, but I knew that after the new moon, there would be another moon, and once it was full I would drink up its light like it was the best thing since sliced bread. Which it was.

"I'd still tap that."

That statement earned Gash another whack on the head.

* * *

The next morning Koruru seemed to be better. We freely talked about random things, and Gash brought up an upcoming concert that they wanted to attend. He said that Koruru could probably get the day off to attend, but he probably couldn't. Actually, when he asked, Queen Eduron gave him the day off to go to the concert. He was overjoyed, and I suddenly wanted to go. I had never--and it shames me a little to admit this--never gone farther than the royal garden. I had no idea what the kingdom was like.

They laughed and handed me their third ticket. Now I just had to not make a fool of myself by losing the ticket or being so oblivious to my surroundings that I looked less like a Prince and more like a mindless country bumpkin.

Excited, I told my father about the concert I was going to. I had never heard of the band, but Koruru and Gash both liked them so I guess I could give them a try. He was happy that I was giving new things a try, and that I was finally going off the royal grounds. This would be a good experience for me, and he would hear none of Eduron's mindless protesting.

Everyone convened to my room to synchronize our efforts. I knew Koruru had a fair amount of good clothes, but Gash had none. He was a little smaller than me, so I gave him some of my tighter fitting clothes. They looked great on him. A simple hoodie and loose jeans, plus a pair of sneakers that sat placidly in my closet. He looked good, and I gave him a thumbs up, saying he could keep them since I never wore anything I gave him in the first place.

We would meet in the main hall an hour before the concert started, which gave us plenty of time to leave and get to the place where the concert would be taking place. That meant that we would be leaving almost right after dinner, which was great planning on Koruru's part. The fuller we were when we left, the less likely we were to be whining about hunger when we got their. She probably didn't want to hear our whining.

So with a stretch I lay on the bed and thought about the concert to come. I feel asleep thinking about what songs they would be singing and how would see my subjects.

* * *

Hyde is synonymous with asshole.

REVIEW OR KORURU DIES NEXT CHAPTER


	7. Twins

"Kami! If you guys don't hurry we're going to be late!" Koruru shouted, wearing a flowery dress with a pretty stargazer lily in her hair and well as flat shoes. She looked as though she'd be out of place in any sort of concert. Gash was running from the Kitchen with a barely-cooked fish between his teeth and the same clothes that I had given him the day before. I warned him that if he got any blood on those clothes I'd be pretty sore. As per usual, he ignored my threats and proceeded to stain my old clothes with fish blood.

I sighed at him. My thin button-up top was completely unbuttoned with a black undershirt and black skinny jeans. My shoes were purple and silver, a pair of sneakers my father insisted I have, saying that it matched my facial color scheme and would drive the princesses crazy. Ironically, I rarely wore them and whenever I did they insisted I change out of them. So I never had a use for them until now.

"Sorry Koruru!" Gash and I called as we tried to run after the girl that was high-tailing it out of the castle. Since I had long legs than Gash and since he was preoccupied with eating the fish that he had caught not much earlier that day, he was lagging pretty far behind us and although we both know we should have been paying him some attention, we allowed his location to fade out of our minds altogether and it wasn't until we got to the concert location that we realized that he was gone.

The pink haired girl looked at me and then at the path we had just com from, hoping that he was just behind us. After Five minutes Koruru started to groan. Had we really just lost Gash in the city? Yes. Yes we had. "Oh goodness. We have to find him!" I nodded and saw her look back at the concert with a sad look in her eyes. I told her that she could go to the concert, and since I had never seen the band before I wouldn't feel as bad.

She smiled and nodded, thanking me briefly before handing the burly guards her ticket. I ran off in the direction we had coming, calling out to Gash to see if I got a response. Nothing. The city was huge and the streets twisted around a lot. I could easily get lost in the confusing streets and throngs of people. Gash wasn't even from this kingdom, so we were like two of a pair, lost in the same city, looking for one another.

"Gash! Gash, where are you!" I shouted into the air, hoping to find the little demon. I sighed--the obviously wasn't working. There had to be a way to call him without shouting at the top of my lungs. There had to be one! Then it hit me.

Zakeru.

If I fired A Zakeru into the sky, the whole sky would light up. I've told Gash and Koruru about my lightning power, so if he saw the blast he'd have to follow it to me. I lifted my hand into the air and murmured my spell, allowing the lightning to rush through my arms to a point that left them sort of numb. The entire sky lit up. Even if he happened to be outside of the city, he had to have seen it. There was no way he couldn't have, right?

A few seconds passed before another lightning attack--like my own but significantly weaker, went up. It was about seven blocks from where I stood. A minute passed before it went up again and I followed it with the same spell. Soon enough Gash cut through the crowd, blood still staining his shirt and pooling on his lips and cheeks.

"Where did you go?" I demanded, not giving the blond enough time to catch his breath. Instead of responding right away he panted before answering. He said that he was trying to keep up with Koruru and I, but he had to stop eventually. In the time that he stopped, Koruru and I had turned a few corners so he had no idea where we went. After that he had just begun wandering around town trying to find the concert and us. I felt sort of bad--seeing as we just kept running while he tied his shoes.

We laughed off the bad feelings as we went back into to concert. We couldn't find Koruru, not to mention that the place was pretty stuffed with people. So we relaxed pretty far away from the stage, and even though the people on the stage looked like tiny ants, thanks to the large and powerful quality of the speakers, we were actually pretty glad not to be right in front of the stage were people were liable to lose their hearing listening to their favorite music. That was irony.

* * *

Koruru's ears were ringing for almost a week after the concert. We tried not to talk to her or laugh since we had to yall really lound to be heard. The yelling eventually got Gash in trouble with his boss, whom bound him to his bed with no food or water for two days. Feeling sorry for him, we managed to sneak him food for the days he was bound. We also made sure to give him a pan, since him making a mess of the bed didn't help anyone.

By the end of the week Koruru and Gash were put through a fair bit of hell for the concert. The worst part was that they didn't even really like the songs they played at the concert, although they seemed pretty happy to have gone to the concert at all. Sometimes I thought that these guys were far to optimistic for their own good.

We saw hide nor hair of Hyde and his new girlfriend, and that was good considering neither Gash or myself wanted to see Angry Koruru again. She seemed to be in a good mood most of the time, and even Eduron was starting to lighten up. Things were starting to look very good in my father's castle, and everyone was happy now. Maybe I was wrong, maybe Eduron was just trying to get used to having a son.

And maybe the world would implode from a society of wood lice. She was up to something, I knew she was up to something, and it didn't take a genius to figure it out.

Something else began to bug me. Gash has a lightning attack, and so do I. Granted--his lightning attack is a lot less powerful than my own, and his comes out yellow instead of white like mine does, but all that aside, the attacks look SO much alike that I could possibly go as far to say that we had the same spell. I've heard of that happening; two demons getting the same spell. That only happened in families though, right? And Gash was not related to me, at least, not in any way I knew of.

My birthday was coming up soon, and I shared this with my friends. Koruru knew this already and wished me a happy birthday. Gash sort of stared into space and responded by saying that his birthday was on the same day as my own. This was sort of weird, but I acknowledged that there aren't enough days in the year for every demon to have a different birthday, so Gash's happened to fall on my own. Pure coincidence, right?

The party was a big ball, with everyone from other kingdoms coming to wish me a happy birthday. When they did I would state that one of my friends had a birthday today too. Their faces went sort of pale--I guess my notorious friendship with my servants precedes me. I didn't care that they scowled at me or their eyes would search around for Gash whom was making funny faces at some of the other servants and Koruru offering food to the guests. I spent the entirety of my party on my throne, sliding down slightly, legs out in front of me. Some of the older demons commented on how much I was growing.

Eduron was not at the party at all. Neither was my father, and that was sort of odd, but I couldn't really look for them. I went to sleep that night with no problems.

The next day however, I told my father about what I had learned about Gash. Her stroked his beard for a few long minutes before murmuring something under his breath and kneeling down to my level. His eyes looked as though they had some sort of confession. "Zeon." He said. "You have a twin brother. Your twin brother is Gash."

He went on to explain that he didn't know whether Gash and I would get along, so he separated us, giving him to Queen Eduron as a servant. It was my mother's idea, and she wished that Gash and I could be reunited after she died. She wanted us to be older and be friends, so have seen things that we would have never seen otherwise. So my father waited ten years after her death--when my and Gash would both be 15--to marry Queen Eduron and bring Gash to the castle.

My life no longer made sense.

* * *

Alright, finally done. I'm finding it hard to come up with 2,000 words, so I'm lowering my bar a little. 1,500 is still a lot, right?


	8. Remix

According to my father, Gash wasn't just some random person that I happened to connect with--he was my twin, me being the older twin. I suddenly realized how stupid I was for not noticing it earlier. I mean, we have the same almost everything. We both like to play chess, even though he sucks at it, we both think the same thoughts oftentimes, and we have similar tastes in women. Father went on to inform me that Queen Eduron didn't know Gash was my brother either. She thought Gash was my clone.

As stupid has I could hardly believe she was for believe such a blatant lie, I had to cut some slack somewhere. She was my stepmom whether I liked it or not. I demanded that he tell her that the boy that she was abusing, that was being told to do the laundry and fetch her clothes was none other than my brother. I demanded to know, in a way that if he tried to deny me of what I wanted or needed, then I would become infuriated. A single look into those desperate orbs made me change my mind about that demand.

"Not yet. I'm afraid neither Eduron nor Gash can know you are related."

I groaned sadly. Gash was my best friend--I felt wrong not sharing something with him. A secret, such as us being related by blood--so closely related by blood that we could almost have been one person. But indeed, maybe it was for the best that Gash didn't know that we were related. If he did know, things would become even more complex than they already were. It was indeed a good thing.

Koruru was the first and only person I told. Rather than looking surprised, or shocked, or even a little confused, she rolled her eyes and asked how I could possibly be so dense. She noticed the similarities early on--she just wanted me to figure it out for myself. Upon learning that my father had been the one to tell me, she once again shook her head and commented on my denseness.

As time wore on, Gash seemed to be getting agitated. He was skulking around and giving everyone--Koruru, his master, me-- the silent treatment. She was always in a bad mood and had a fit whenever he didn't win when we played chess, and we never saw him at the bench. He was constantly eating or drinking, and he seemed to be gaining a lot of weight.

"I'm really worried about how much Gash has been eating," Koruru commented one day, kneeling in the grass and making a crown of flowers. It was an impulse thing she did whenever she was upset or worried. As she completed the third one in that sitting, it joined the prior two on my head. As much as Koruru meant to me, I didn't like wearing her crowns, mainly because she had a bad habit of picking flowers that held bees or ants, and they seemed to enjoy attacking me.

"Me... too..." I said, holding my breath and waiting for the bee a few centimeters from my face to fly away. She seemed to want to take her dear sweet time, and Koruru's worry over Gash left no worry for me and potentially getting the shit stung out of me. "I wonder why he seems to have a constant case of the munchies..."

As though he had heard them, Gash was taking fast, jerky strides out of the front door and towards the path that lead to the rocking bench, and we looked towards eat other. Nodding in silent understanding, we stood (this earned me a sting on the nose from the startled bee) and made to find out what Gash was doing. Careful to step over twigs, we were soon there. Koruru parted the leaves and branches, and watched him for a while before clapping her hands over her mouth, looking as though she might start crying. The pink haired demon moved out of the way, and allowed me to see.

Gash was leaning back, his feet pushing him back and forth. Something the nature of a cigarette but... not, between his lips. Whatever it was was on fire, smoke going up into the air. The smell was aromatic, and the look in his eyes was glazed and dreamily happy. What was in his hand was a blunt. What he was smoking was a drug called Remix--a more powerful version of the human drug pot. I was suddenly very angry towards Gash. What was wrong with him? What did he think he was doing?! Koruru was crying silently--something she could have learned from me.

I led her back to castle, up to my room, and she kneeled in front of my bed and sobbed openly and animatedly. This had to be the most amount of times she's cried in a single year. I patted her back, and she cried. She fell asleep like that--head on my bed, kneeling on the bed. I ran her fingers through her soft cherry blossom locks and allowed my fingers to lightly touch her cheek. To my shock, she leaned towards my hand. A gentle smile graced my lips, and I scooped her up to go to bed.

Down the steps, pushing the kitchen door open with my foot and then through the low door, I saw Gash laying on the floor. At first I thought something was wrong, but then I heard his loud snoring marred by strange giggles. He was still high, I realized, and had probably fallen there and forgotten to get back up.

Carefully, I stepped around him and to where I knew Koruru's bed was and placed her down upon it, pulling up her burlap sack until she was relaxed before hopping down onto the floor and returning to his room, being careful to step around his still-quite-obviously-high twin.

* * *

The next morning they decided that they needed to confront Gash about Remix. They needed to find a way to tactfully approach the situation, in a way that Gash would listen, in a way that would make him understand that they were worried and that he was only hurting himself. With a deep sigh they watched Gash as he lumbered around. His eyes looked normal and he looked moderately coordinated. He put on a lot of weight and his stomach stuck out from his Servant's shirt. At the moment, he wasn't high--not at that moment anyway.

As soon as Koruru could get him away from work, she led him to my room. Tossing him on the bed, he appeared to be itchy, irritable... He had probably crashed sometimes last night and couldn't get his fix until he had a break, which was now and then later that day long after the sun went down.

"Gash... are.... you doing Remix...?" Koruru asked nervously. Gash closed one of his eyes and glared at her, giving her one of the meanest looks I had ever seen him give to anyone. Actually, maybe he was high and was just coming down. I wasn't sure, I had never seen someone high before.

"No."

"Gash, we SAW you smoking it at the Bench!" I said, louder than I meant to. That place was sacred and secret, and like hell I was going to let him defile it with his drugs. The sickening smell of the drug was on his clothes, and his eyes looked droopy, and whenever I went back, the place smelled of the Remix. It was as though one of my mother's attributes had been cruelly snuffed out.

"And why were you following me?" The blond asked accusingly, pointing at use with a single chubby finger. I gritted my teeth and responded with the true story--that we had been worried about the way he had been acting; antisocial, irritable... and told him to imagine our surprise when we saw him on the bench, rocking back and forth with an angering nonchalant air, as though he was doing nothing wrong. Koruru watched us go at it, as our voices grew steadily louder and louder in volume.

"What does it matter what I do, huh!?"

"It matters because don't want my younger brother--my younger twin bother at that--dead because he was stupid enough to throw his life away to some lousy drug!"

A silence befell the room and Gash merely looked at me, his face completely blank and devoid of all emotion. I realized that I had slipped the secret, but as I surveyed his features, I found nothing. He seemed neither angry nor happy, believing or not, and could only watch as Gash walked out, slamming the door behind him.

This was not going well.

* * *

And... CUT! Great scene everyone, great scene!

Zeon: When are me and Koruru going to sex?! DX

-falcon paunch'd- And you are supposed to be a prince?!

REVIEW NAO


	9. Valentine's

It had been a week since then.

Gash seemed to be getting worse. The Remix was mass-murdering the remainder of Gash's brain cells, and he would no doubt forget his own name pretty soon. Koruru seemed to be spending much of her time in my room, weeping, upset about what was happening to her second brother, me being her first. That was the problem at the moment--even though recently I've come to terms with my romantic love of Koruru, she didn't return the love in the same form, and that frustrated me a little.

While I was helping Koruru clean up the servants' quarters, we came across Gash's remix stash. It was the clone of a marijuana leaf, only bigger and it irritated the skin when it was touched. It was sort of like Poison Ivy you smoked and it made you high. Koruru and I glanced at each other and we thought the same thought. It was said that withdrawal from Marijuana was powerful, but Gash was a strong demon.

I tossed the itchy stuff into the trash.

Koruru and I finished cleaning the room and made sure to tie it up and latch down the top of the garbage. Gash's hand-eye coordination was suckish lately--chances are he wouldn't be able to open it easily.

The symptoms started the next day. The blonde boy was pacing around the castle, eyes wide with bags under them. He looked terrible, and his skin hung off his form from quickly gaining weight and then not eating anything since then. Whenever someone talked to him, he gave a snappy response.

Koruru and I was the subject of his angry glares, whenever he wasn't skulking around or whining about having a splitting headache or needing a joint. I was almost insulted to know that my twin brother was a druggie, especially since I always made him out to be stronger and smarter than that. Sure, he was no Albert Einstein, but he was smart enough to know that Remix was not happy candy be any means at all.

He finally cornered us at the end of the day. He would not get enough pocket change to but more of the addicting drug for a long, long time. For once, I was very thankful for Eduron's greedy nature. As long as she was greedy, Gash wouldn't get his fix, and maybe his addiction would have vanished by then.

"What did you guys do with it. I know you guys did it. Where is it!" He unknowingly was raising his voice to us. I lightly thought that he might of gotten another fix, but I hurriedly pushed the thought out of my head, since it was a very uncomfortable thought. Gash's eyes looked impossibly worn and tired, maybe a little twitchy, but he did seem to be doing okay. As long as he stayed away from his craving, everything should be okay, right?

Both Koruru and I said innocently that we didn't know what he was talking about. My hands still stung violently from touching the stuff, and I had to resist the urge to scratch, or else I would rub whatever chemical compound that was on the Remix leaf into my skin. He glared at me, muttered a foul curse directed towards me, and turned heels and stormed back into the castle.

She looked at my palms, which were now burning an angry, irritated red. "Are you okay, Zeon?" She asked me, although took care not to touch my hands, less the chemical go to her hands too.

"Well, it burns a lot and it feels like bugs are chewing away at my skin. Aside from that, I'm pretty good I guess…" I replied, blowing cool air onto my palms. I resisted the urge to groan at how to cool air made my hands feel so much better. The pink haired girl that stood beside me saw this, and went into the castle, emerging a couple minutes later with a bucket of ice water for me to soak my hands in. I slid my hands in, almost clasping a chunk of ice with how good it felt against my abused and irritated palms. I sighed out a word of thanks to Koruru, whom replied saying that it was no problem.

"Do you think we did the right thing, throwing away his stash of Remix?" She asked me, beginning to make her famous flower crowns. I resisted the urge to cringe, thinking that if I got stung I would probably be holding one of those ice chunks to my nose. "I mean, he's really mad at us…"

I rolled my eyes at her sentiments. As much as I loved her kindness, her kindness got in the way of plain logic. "Koruru, think about it. Gash could've _died_ if we didn't do anything."

"But what if he's too addicted? What then Zeon? Can't someone _die_ from withdrawal symptoms?" She said rather shrilly. The demon girl was becoming hysterical, I could see. I wanted, now more than ever, to comfort her, to hug her. But I couldn't. Curse Gash and his Remix.

I heaved a sigh. As much as I hated to admit it, she had a point. It wasn't unheard of to die from withdrawal if the drug was taken away too abruptly. I could only think of one thing to say.

"Better to die quitting than to die addicted."

I heard her sniffle and stand up. She walked to the castle and left me alone outside, a half-finished flower crown lay beside me in the green rich grass. I looked up, expecting to see her, but she was gone.

A few weeks passed, and Gash lost all the weight he had gained. He returned to sleeping normal hours, and even joined us at the bench swing, where we would stare at the moon and listen to the creaking. The smell of his drug had long since dissipated, and the irritation it caused on my skin vanished as well. It was almost as though it hadn't happened. But it HAD happened, and no amount of wishing that it hadn't was going to change that. That, admittedly, was an odd prospect.

Gash came to terms with our being related, and as such tended to refer to me as Zeon-niisan or –niisama whenever we were out of earshot of father. He'd be mad if he knew that I slipped up to Gash, after promising not to.

The days were filled with trips. Trips to the river, to the beach, and trips around town as Koruru and Gash went shopping for things that were needed around the castle, like cleaning fluid and food. We didn't go to any more concerts, that was curiously off our agenda ever since what happened last time.

Girls around the village loved to talk to me, and a blue-haired girl named Patie caught sight of Gash. I elbowed him and pointed her out, much to my twin's distain.

"She's just not the type for me…" He muttered, putting a bottle of cleaning solution back on the shelf he had originally taken it off of. I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes too obviously.

"Well, you don't want to be alone on Valentine's Day, do you?" I asked, wiggling my silver eyebrows, much to Gash's amusement. The owner of the store glared at him and he instantly quieted down his laughter.

The blond boy shrugged and showed me two bottles of cleaner. "Which do you think'll be better?"

"Dude, I don't know…" I said honestly. "Anyway, I can't wait for Koruru's Valentine chocolates."

"Confident you'll get some?" Gash asked, slipping a bottle into his basket and walking to the front desk. "Maybe you'll go all the way too."

I punched him in the shoulder.

Valentine's Day came along. I expected some chocolates from the princesses asking for marriage, and maybe from Koruru, since she always gave me some. I was especially fond of Koruru's chocolate, since she made them herself, instead of the obviously bought shit that the others got me. It seemed to come from the heart a lot more.

This year, she made chocolates for Gash too, who got none besides that. He happily ate my candies, even though I never recalled telling him that he could. But hey, I didn't plan to eat them, so it was only going to go to waste if no one did.

Upon receiving my candies, I thanked Koruru. She usually said I was welcome and give a heart-meltingly adorable smile, and that's exactly what she did, except she added something. Something I never would have expected, but something totally welcome.

She kissed me.

It was a gentle kiss, square on my lips. I felt blood rush to my face, and realized that I was blushing. After the kiss, she gave me her adorable smile, and got back to work. I went to bed, and found dreams curiously empty. What was there left to dream about when your dreams have already come true?

* * *

Story has been updated. Can I haz cookie nao? :3


	10. Cherish

It was one of those days. A rainy day in mid-April that the servants and royalty alike were busy. Queen Eduron, my father, and even my stepsister Cherish were all busy, but no one was busier than Gash, Koruru, and I. Gash and Koruru had been put in charge of cleaning the floors of the entire castle from top to bottom, and our castle had a lot of top and even more bottom. So of course I volunteered to help as well. But that wasn't possible until they showed me how to properly clean floors. It took me a while to get it, but once I got it, it was easy enough. Of course the entire process was full of reprimands from Gash, my long-lost twin brother, and Koruru, my... she used to be my sister, but now was she trying to move even closer to my heart? I didn't know. My confusion...

But once I mastered the art of scrubbing the floor clean with what they called the "swish" motion, I was ready to tackle rooms on my own.

In all honesty, I had no idea how large the castle was. I had only ever seen the first and second floors, and even then I had never explored all the rooms. My father, since I was small, had trained me hard and I obeyed him. When he told me not to go into certain rooms I had been obedient and did not enter them. But that had been years ago, when the word of my father had been as infallible as the Word of God. Now, with the intelligence gained from simply growing older, I realized that my father's words were powerful, but not infallible. His punishment for insolence was not supreme.

We had decided to split each hall into threes, with the first person done having to go over the work of the other two. It wasn't a difficult set up, really, especially not to me since I already knew I would never be the first one done. The clothes I'd decided to wear were some extremely old clothes that miraculously still fit, though they gave off an odd musty smell to combat the harsh smell of lemon.

On days like this, all the doors were unlocked so we could clean them and get the floors in there too. However, since we were only supposed to do floors, these unlocked rooms were saved until we had cleaned the floors everywhere else. No matter how much I wanted to go and examine them, I couldn't do so. It would interfere with my work and Gash and Koruru would give me a beating the likes I'd never seen before. My screw ups would get them punished, so I had to be extra mindful about the jobs I do. Perhaps that's one of the reasons they implemented the second cleaner.

I learned that the castle had four accessible floors and one floor blocked from entry. That floor was entirely caked with centuries of dust, and yet... it called to me a bit, beckoned me to come explore what was hidden inside. But I refused it that pleasure and moved to get on with my cleaning. On this particular floor, Gash had finished first, so he dashed to my side of the floor and was about to start cleaning when he too was beckoned by the secrets of the unknown floor.

Strangely enough though, he seemed far more curious than I had been and even walked up to the lock that separated the secrets from him. I watched him for a moment, then realizing what he intended to do I went over to stop him. As soon as my arms got around him, he screamed and flailed and his voice sounded odd, like it didn't belong to him. His eyes were wide and frantic, as though he'd seen something he wanted more than life but it was slowly being wrenched from his hands.

"Can't you hear them?" He screamed around his tears, his hands holding on with more strength than a thought the boy had possessed. "The voices! Can't you hear them? Can't you?" I stared at him thinking for a moment that the cleaning liquid had caused my young twin brother to lose his mind.

"What are you talking about Gash? There are no..."

At that moment I heard them. It was as though there was a family, no, a town in the hallway above us. Young, adult, old, and in-between, I heard them all. I didn't hear what they were saying specifically, but I did hear their voices. It wasn't like those horror stories my dad told me when I was tiny, about the young hero hearing voices beckoning him to do something bad or illegal. These were cheerful, friendly voices that only asked for our attention, and our attention we gave, undivided. My hands had gone limp from those voices, and I hardly heard Gash fumbling with the lock, completely forgetting his lightning abilities in his hurry to be closer to Them. They were there... And I... I was here. I was so far away from the voices, the comforting voices...

It was Koruru who, after not seeing me or Gash, came looking for us and found us in such a state. She tried her best to awaken us, and although I was awoken easily, Gash was not. For him, as I could plainly see, whatever had happened to me multiplied by about two hundred was befalling him. He was screaming and crying and tugging on the heavy lock as though that would open it, as though with his limited strength alone he could rip off the lock. But it wasn't working. All he could do was thrash and cry. I could no longer hear the voices, but judging solely on my twin's reactions and cries, the voices were fading.

"No!" He screamed, yanking at the heavy lock so much that it seemed plausible he might dislocate his shoulders. "Come back! Don't go! Please..." He slumped onto his knees, his hands holding the lock in a softer hold instead of the death grip it had been in moments ago. "Don't go..."

And with that, his hands finally fell off the lock as he repeated to himself one last time: "Don't go.." and lost consciousness.

* * *

It took a little while, but Gash finally woke up. He seemed to have no recollection of hearing voices or screaming to be let into the fifth floor of the house. In fact, when we told him about it he merely looked at us like we were the ones hearing voices and not him. We tried to reason things out to him, but our efforts only served to confuse him even more, so we decided to just stop trying anymore.

"I think," Koruru said, standing and cleaning her plain dress with a few soft pats. "It's time for us to go back through the rooms."

And she was right. Of course, for the most part my side of the castle didn't have many rooms to clean, but I did find one interesting room. It was unlocked, of course, and inside was an entire sleuth of books. I knew without even really thinking that this wasn't the library. There were dusty boxes and books that looked more like photo albums than books. I went forward and took out one, opening it to a random page. It... I didn't know who it was. I think it was the king before my father. Another one, my father and mother, both freshly married. It stared at her happy, young face and that image of her ten years ago streaked across my mind. She was dying. The shadow of this youthful face...

I shut it and replaced it on the shelf before I stained it with my tears, and returned to cleaning my assigned few rooms.

Dark had fallen by the time I got to the second floor, but Gash and Koruru were still cleaning rooms on the floor above. They had a lot more rooms than I did, probably on purpose. It was the last room in the hallway where I had cleaned. It, like the others, was unlocked. I opened the door...

And saw Cherish sitting at her desk writing in a little book that was obviously a diary. I remembered with a hint of discomfort that even though my father and her mother had been married for months, we had never exchanged so much as even a greeting. It seemed that she was completely unaware of the my presence, probably thinking I was just a servant come to clean her floor.

"Uh... Cherish?" I said, feeling awkward.

She glanced over her shoulder and gasped, shutting the tiny book much faster than was necessary. "Oh, Zeon... what are you..." She took in my clothes and the cleaning instrument in my hand and scowled, her face becoming angry before taking an aloof air. "Oh." She said, almost sounding snide.

All I felt I could do was sigh in exasperation.

"Yes, oh." Well, now I wished I hadn't said anything. Now that my stepsister had given me her share of flack, now I could set about doing "servant work" as her mother called it. I had finished cleaning the area furthest from the door when she decided to acknowledge my presence again.

"Why do you do such menial tasks?" She asked, tossing her long hair over one shoulder in a prissy manner.

I gave a sigh. "Because I want to."

The sound of chair screeching back against stones made my head go up and stare at her. "Oh Zeon..." Her arms went around me, and since she had caught me while I was leaning over to put actual strength into my scrubbing, my face ended up smushed into her breasts. I was frantic to pull away. "You do those things to impress that Koruru girl, isn't that right? Well, I have everything she has. Instead of trying to impress her, impress me. We're only related by marriage... Our love would not be too forbidden..." I finally managed to pull myself free from her raunchy embrace.

After composing myself I looked at Cherish. She and Koruru were roughly the same age. They had similar body types, and if I was correct, Cherish had a better bust. "You may be bodily the same, but there's one thing Koruru has that you don't."

Cherish seemed amused that I remembered the female's name. "Alright then. What's that?"

"A heart."

And with that I left her room, dragging my cleaning supplies with me. Like before someone would do this room behind me, and I only hoped it was Gash.

* * *

And then there was a new chapter. I'm sleepy though. Next in my line of updates is Loyalty: A Bond Between Friends.


	11. Proverbs

I feel kind of bad for leaving you guys hanging for so long. D: but now it's summer and here's the next part. Surprisingly enough, this is one of the few stories where I actually know where I'm going with this.

I know. Strange huh?

* * *

I felt more confused now than ever before. In the beginning I was always so sure of myself, and I always knew what I was doing. But this new feeling of not quite understanding what was going on and not really being in the loop was starting to freak me out a little. It was log after midnight and I was sitting at my workplace in my room trying to sort out all these thoughts. Gash was my identical twin brother. Koruru seemed to be backing me out of brother territory and into potential love candidacy. And Cherish seemed to be doing the exact same thing. Was it because she hated to see that a servant could possibly have something that she herself couldn't have? Or did she truly want to have me all to herself? What was she planning? What was Eduron planning?

I was sixteen now, and I was unsure of what to do next. Up until now it seemed like Eduron and I were playing a rather complex game of chess on an oversized board, and I had slyly maneuvered out of her every trap. But I wasn't even sure what this next trap was supposed to be, so of course I didn't know how to worm my way out of it. I just had to relax and clear my mind. If I did that then I should be okay. Once that was out of the way, thinking became a lot easier. Okay. This was an easy enough trap.

Cherish would act raunchy towards me, get me drunk, and then, after several months, would report in a panicked manner that she was pregnant. Frightened Cherish would tell her mother and his father that he had forced himself upon her and ruin his relationship with Koruru, who would believe him to be the same brand of jackass as Hyde.

But Gash. What about him? He seemed to be the loose end. Where did he fit in in this whole plan? Where was he? I massaged my temples and looked up into the clear night sky into the half moon, the receding face of my mother looking down at me with a prideful face, knowing that I would figure this out if it took all night. Yes. I would. I would make her proud. And even if my father had forgotten all that mother had meant to us, I still remembered.

'My big, strong, smart boy,' She would say to me after I had solved one of her notorious riddles. 'One day you'll make a woman very happy. My handsome boy.'

I was Zeon Bell, god dammit, and I was not one to be outsmarted or outfoxed. Eduron and Cherish were outmatched. I let a smile curl onto my features. Yes. I would outsmart them, and get them out of my house.

The next morning at breakfast, Cherish sat beside me for a change. My father seemed happy to know that I was getting along with my stepsister. Little did he know that it was nothing like that. Cherish was eating carefully, chewing her food with thoughtful slowness. Meanwhile her hands graced my thighs, uncomfortably close to my groin. I knew this would happen, but I still wasn't sure what to do about it. I still felt incredibly awkward, incredibly violated, and I had no idea that she was willing to go so far. A shudder went up my body. It was a shudder of sheer disgust, but for some reason Cherish smiled and moved her hand up further, probably misinterpreting my shudder as one of pleasure and thinking it to be the 'go ahead' to continue touching me.

From the corner of my eye I could see Eduron watching me with a smile that barely reached her eyes. This was the first time that I could clearly see that she was manipulating Cherish along with my father. I suddenly felt bad for the girl that was molesting me. And boy was that a strange feeling. My hand reached down with sudden quickness and grabbed Cherish's hand, pushing it over to her and picking at my breakfast, nibbling the toast and eggs gratefully. I wasn't sure why, but I felt suddenly uneasy with my breakfast. I was afraid that there was some kind of drug on the toast that would make me drunk if I ingested too much. The strange thing was that I was actually worried about this. If my hunch was right then Cherish would lure me in if I was drunk. And who knew what would happen then.

Her plan was flawed if Cherish didn't actually get pregnant from the encounter. If she lied about being pregnant with my child and it could be proved we never even had sex, then my father would know that Eduron and Cherish were bad people. However, if she did get pregnant (for real) and had the baby which was successfully pinned on me, my father would be ashamed of me. He would give me the baby and banish me from the castle. But then Eduron would have to deal with Gash. Hopefully father understood the importance of keeping the castle in the lineage and not letting conniving wenches snatch it from under our boots.

I could trust Gash to keep the kingdom safe. He wasn't as strong as me, but he was a good fighter and a good person. He wouldn't be manipulated like my father was. It was unlike him. With a heavy sigh I pushed my breakfast away and went out into the garden. At first I wasn't followed. But then I heard the sound of the heavy doors opening and closing again, and knew that someone was behind me. Who it was, I didn't know, but they weren't trying too hard to be sneaky. Originally I was headed towards the bench, but if whoever this was wasn't Gash or Koruru, they would follow me nonetheless. It was my way of weeding out the trustworthy ones from those who only want to hurt me.

Near the edge of the garden was a natural spring where we integrated all kinds of small pet fish. It was like a large and natural fish tank, only you couldn't enjoy staring at them and tapping the glass quite as much. That was where I was headed right now, and the person followed dutifully, thinking nothing of my change of course. Suddenly, when I was a few steps from the spring and I could see the shimmery bodies of the fish, I whipped around at my pursuer, who was too surprised to think to hide.

Behind me was Tsao-lon, one of my father's old friends. He didn't look too old, in fact, he had been one of the demons that was encased in stone during the last battle. Dressed as always in his battle-ready gear, Tsao-lon quickly got over his shock at being discovered and sighed, walking up to me. He had helped me train after Father aided in releasing him from his stone prison. It took him a long time to get used to being in a world where very few people still know his name, but I took a liking to him early on, and aside from being my current mentor he is also a close friend who comes to visit from time to time.

Our eyes met and I brought my hands together for a respectful bow. Tsao-lon returned it and walked over to me.

"Hello Zeon... I see things aren't going well."

That was the alarming thing about Tsao-lon... he was insanely perceptive when he wasn't going off. He had a short temper and could be annoyingly arrogant. Rightfully so. I still had yet to best him, and part of me dreaded the day when I could. Once I could best him, Father would send for another, more powerful tutor and dismiss my current one. All of my mentors had always been cool and calculating. Tsao-lon was the only one who was more hot-headed than me. He was interesting, and I liked having him around.

"Right again... I feel like everything is going crazy and slipping through my fingers... I never felt so out of power... out of control... like everything is trying to defeat me," I said, as my hands started to shake. "Shīfu Tsao-lon, I don't know what to do... don't you have some archaic words of wisdom for me?"

Tsao-lon looked up into the sky as though he was thinking deeply about my request. It wouldn't be the first time that I had asked the elder demon for his aid. After a few moments he looked down, and said, with an annoyingly goofy look on his face, "Man with glass house should change in basement?"

For perhaps a half second a pondered this before realizing that he had just made something up on the spot to appease me, and that those words probably held very little meaning if any at all. I reached over to try and hit him for giving me useless advice, but his reflexes were faster, and he slapped my hand hard with his staff. My hand was retracted and I rubbed it angrily.

"Some REAL advice, please!"

Tsao-Lon sighed and rubbed his spiky white hair down, and I watched in amusement as it sprang back up to it's former shape. "Fine. Then listen closely. You know I'm not the type that goes spouting off in infinite wisdom. I'm a kid too."

That was true. Time had not affected Tsao-Lon whilst he was in the stone, so he was still very young. I forgot a lot that despite his strength and age that he was still a kid too.

"If I had a formula for bypassing trouble," Tsao- Lon began, not looking at me but instead over his shoulder into the pond, watching the shimmering backs of the fish as though they were the most interesting thing around at that moment. "I would not pass it round. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don't embrace trouble; that's as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say meet it as a friend, for you'll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it."

Looking serious, he raised his staff and rapped me on my shoulder and then my head. I managed to ignore the pain. "There is one lesson you have failed to completely grasp Zeon: Every generation reaps what the prior has sown, yet everyone must grow on their own, no matter how tall their predecessors were. Do you understand?"

I furrowed my brows and tried to process what he was saying. I realized that he was saying that although we inherit good and bad things from our parents, we have to get by on our own merits and not on theirs. Thanks to my sheltered upbringing, I had seen less trouble than the average teen my age. But it was a natural part of growing up, and I should rise to meet this trouble no matter what. "I understand Tsao-Lon."

The ancient demon gave me a big smile. "Great! Listen, you can come by my place anytime, you're always welcome. If you need advice or anything I'm always around."

I smiled and nodded. Tsao-Lon was a regular guy. Not royalty and not a servant. He was just a normal working class guy who happened to know the king. He had definitely seen trials and tribulations, and he definitely rose to the challenge. I could do it too. Zeon Bell never backed down from a challenge.

"I'll make sure to do that."


End file.
